“How can you even see the gold threads?” I asked after I shook Delta’s hand.

"I've leveled up," she said.

“How have you leveled up?” I pressed.

“I am an Astral Phantom,” she said, switching back to Russian from Alanian. “I have… a skill for that. The threads binding people are plainly visible in the Astral."

“Chrysalis?” I asked.

“Yes,” she affirmed.

“What are you trying to convert yourself into?” I demanded.

“Take a guess,” she smirked dangerously.

“Astral Fungus?” I ventured.

“Very good,” Delta said. “I’ve been working on turning myself fully into Astral Cordyceps Fungus, seeding the local Astral Ocean with little spores. Mostly, the spores perish. Sometimes… they manage to snag something of value and that’s when I get experience from it.”

“Do they… propagate?” I asked cautiously.

“Not really,” Delta shrugged. “I am far too low level for that. I do get experience from occasionally hurting Astral Phantoms though. There are a lot of those around in Skyisle. I think some idiot forgot to close the door to the land of the dead before Tricameron was atomized."

I let out a breath I didn’t know that I was holding. My hypothesis was wrong. Delta didn’t steal experience or mana from me. She had taken her own path, made her own choices, pushed [Chrysalis] further than I ever did.

“Can you design skills?” I asked.

“No,” Delta shook her silver mane. “I cannot.”

I relaxed further.

“Well, I can design spells,” I said, yawning. “And I think that you’re wrong about being a subject of an experiment. The gold threads binding us are blind. They don’t have any eyes. Also, the one between us is dying, getting weaker."

“How would you know?” Delta demanded.

“Because if there was something observing us, I reckon I would spot it,” I explained. “My Identify spell is fairly complex. I can detect almost anything with it.”

“I see,” Delta relaxed ever so slightly.

“I understand that you’re confused and afraid,” I said. “But, you don’t have to be alone anymore.”

“It is nice to finally talk with someone,” Delta nodded.

“Listen,” I said, yawning again. “I’m tired and it’s very late. It was a pain to get this damn crystal from dad’s workshop. How about we talk tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Delta agreed. “I will head into [Chrysalis] for now. Goodnight, Slava.”

“Goodnight Delta,” I smiled at her, curling up into the sheets and closing my eyes.

. . .

“Halt! You shall not pass” I swing my sword.

“Who died and made you the bridge boss?” My nemesis demanded.

“I am the Sentinel of Skyisle,” I retorted. “This bridge is therefore my property.”

“For shame! Claiming a bridge that rightfully belongs to me as the last Sentinel! For this, you shall die!” My nemesis growled, swinging her sword.

The wooden sword collided with my wooden shield, making me step back.

“Your knees buckle!” Delta laughed.

“Nope,” I retorted.

“I see them buckling, you liar, that's what you get for constantly investing all your points into intelligence! Should have acquired more… dexterity!” Delta spun through the air faster than my eyes could track her, kicking my legs out from under me. I dropped the shield as I fell into the mossy ravine below and rolled sideways.

“Come back here! I’m not done kicking your ass!” Delta jumped off the massive fallen tree, following me into the ravine.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” I teased, unrolling and running. Giant, moss covered boulders and pine trees flashed past me as my feet slapped against the slightly muddy and then sandy path.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Being seven and running wild and free was exhilarating. I spent the last thirty years of my life as an Administrator and researcher, sitting behind a computer monitor and examining viruses, charts, reports and filing endless paperwork. It was nice to have no responsibilities, except for the goals that I set for myself.

I looked behind me. Delta was catching up. Damn her and her long legs! I was at a disadvantage here. It was a scientific fact that girls got taller faster than boys, plus she did invest more into Dexterity and Agility.

“Stay within the farm Ward!” My mom yelled at us from afar.

“I know mom, lay off!” Delta yelled off to the side without even slowing down. “Don’t you have Agromancery to do?”

My mom and sister never did get along, even after Delta stopped excessively using her [Chrysalis]. It took a lot of coaxing from me to get Delta to come out of her protective shell, but eventually she became extra bossy, sassy and chatty as was to be expected from a little sister. Even if she had a whole plethora of my memories, I still saw her as my little sister and someone to protect and watch over and teach valuable lessons to.

“Come brave warriors!” Mrs. Longosh declared from the porch of her farmhouse. “Lunch awaits!”

While Delta’s attention was momentarily distracted I threw an entire pocket full of round rock pebbles behind me. My twin sister careened on the pebbles, flailing her arms and comically falling sideways into a muddy puddle.

“Curse your tricks, sneaky hobbitses!” She growled. I spent long evenings narrating Lord of the Rings to her while sitting by the fireplace and she really took a liking to it.

I reached the farmhouse before she did, acquiring pancakes first. The butter-covered baked dough literally melted in my mouth. Arianniss Longosh had a baking skill maxed to LV 20 and I would absolutely fight a god to the death to keep her from sacrificing it.

Leveling up as a child was a pain. Observing things with the Infoscope and designing spells gave me less and less experience and nobody let me kill giant monsters as mom was watching me like a hawk.

Not that I could kill giant monsters to begin with. At Level 10, I managed to bring all of my skills to LV 20 and got stuck there. No matter what I did, I could not pass through the level gap. Plainly put, there was something wrong with Skyisle, something simply not letting spell-work above LV 20 function properly.

In seven years I only encountered two spells beyond LV 20 - dragonfire from Aradria and the violet beam fired from the church by the Avatar of Ishira.

Panting and covered in mud Delta arrived at the farmhouse and claimed her pancakes.

“Destiny! By the Gods! Did you roll through a swamp?” Cassandra walked to the porch from the garden, sending Delta a look of disappointment.

“Maybe I did?” Delta looked down at herself and shrugged, not finding anything wrong with the fact that she was splattered in mud head to toe.

“Where did you even find so much dirt?!” Mom demanded.

“Places,” Delta shrugged, mowing down a pancake.

“Dad and I got you that dress for your seventh birthday,” mom pointed out.

“Uh-huh,” Delta said. “And I’m utilizing it as intended. Dad also gave us these excellent wooden swords!"

Delta tapped her mud-covered wooden sword.

"I'm already regretting that he did," mom sighed.

I smirked as Delta continued to eat her pancakes, completely unbothered by the mud covering her clothes. Mrs. Longosh simply shook her head, but I could tell she was secretly amused by Delta's carefree, tomboyish attitude. Mom on the other hand wasn’t impressed.

"I can't believe how careless you're being with your clothes. You have to learn to take care of your things, Destiny. We can't keep replacing them every time you decide to climb over a fence or make yourself cloth wings and jump off the rooftop of the house in your frilliest dress!”

“I can’t help it, flying is in my veins,” Delta retorted.

“What?” Mom asked. She fired a cleaning spell across Delta. It only made some of the mud peel off in sparkling flakes.

“I was a sparrow in my past life,” Delta insisted. “You cannot confine me to the ground.”

“What kind of a sparrow?” Mrs. Longosh asked, barely concealing her laughter.

“Hrmm,” Delta mulled, attacking another pancake. “One with blue stripes.”

Kopusha’s glider had blue stripes, I realized suddenly. Delta wanted to fly because Kopusha had a glider built by the Alanian Magocracy. She remembered what it was like to glide across the clouds, to flash between the trees like the wind. I remembered it too, but then I also remembered flying on Soviet ocean gliders like the Lun-class ekranoplan which flew at 550 km/h, about 10 times above the top speed of Alanian Acolyte sky gliders.

“Destiny,” Mom insisted. “You cannot fly. Skyisle doesn’t have…”

“I’ll do what I want,” Delta interrupted, looking even more determined as if goading mom was her life's mission. “Don’t think you can stop me, Mom. I’ve seen Equality Overseer skyships dock at the church. I’ll privateer one of them and fly wherever I want to!”

Her attitude reminded me of Valery Chkalov, an incredibly daring Russian pilot born in the village of Vasilova Sloboda. As a test pilot, Chkalov continually challenged his fears in order to overcome them. He performed rolls, drops and vertical climbs with extraordinary talent and was featured on Soviet stamps, novels and movies of my childhood for his conquering of the arctic route.

“What are you even saying?” Delta’s audacity finally broke mom. “No! Don’t even talk about such utter nonsense!”

Delta rolled her eyes. I could tell she was already plotting a way to get her hands on an Imperial skyship. Mom, on the other hand, was still fuming.

"I cannot believe the amount of trouble you two get into," Mom muttered, shaking her head. "You're lucky I have minor cleaning and healing skills or else I'd be at my wit's end with you two."

Mrs. Longosh chuckled softly, patting Mom's shoulder. "Kids will be kids, dear. Remember when we were young and carefree?"

Mom sighed, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Yes, I remember. But I also remember the trouble we got into and the consequences that came with it."

“The term of the current Overseer is going to be up soon,” Mrs. Longosh said. “You two best not make too much noise. New Overseers can be tough, especially the ones straight out of the Imperial Academy!"

Delta and I exchanged a glance, silently agreeing that we would be careful and not do anything too reckless around Overseers of the Gregarius Empire. We finished our pancakes in silence, enjoying the warm, buttery goodness.

As we left the farmhouse, Delta took my hand and squeezed it. "Thanks for always being here for me, Slava,” she whispered in Russian.

I smiled at her, squeezing her hand back. "Of course, sis. That's what family is for.”